The most diverse staff body at London independent schools

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5 years ago I went to about 7 or 8 open days at London day schools while researching a school for my daughter. All of them talked about either how diverse their school is or how they are working towards their school becoming more diverse. This was all in reference to the student body but no one talked about staff diversity. I remember noticing how white the staff are at many London private schools.

Does anyone have more recent experience of visiting schools?

I am about to start researching again for my youngest. I feel it is important for children to see representation in teachers and leaders, as well as their classmates. It would be great to know which schools are thinking about this or already have actively recruited staff that represent more Londoners.

I know this feels like a very niche question but maybe I missed some schools last time that are more diverse. Any tips or thoughts appreciated :)

The GDST are doing lots of work around this, they recognise how important it is. It’s not a quick fix though. Streatham and Clapham might be a good place to look, this is the senior school teaching line-up: schs.gdst.net/staff/senior-school/teaching-staff-senior-school/

State school staff in London are non-diverse, never mind private schools.

I went to school in South London, lots of non-white friends, and most of my black and Asian friends wouldn't dream of going into teaching, they were far more interested in professions where pay and respect are much higher. (Law, the City, Tech) Actually at the time , we had maybe 2 non-white teachers, so not much inspiration for them neither. Only one non-white friend became a teacher.

Even in academia, the pay conditions and general shit life in education means people just aren't entering these fields, be they black or white. I know black women who have to put up with so much shit in their lives, why would you choose teaching as a grad?

But compared to say 20 years ago, things have got better, as above poster shows, SCHS has a fair amount of diversity.

I think where the student body is diverse, you should find the school staff a bit more reflective,my friend who did teach chose a school with a diverse student body, so maybe that explains why diverse schools attract the fewer non-white teachers out there.

GDST marketing is good but check the reality and you don’t have the diversity. Some other schools are excellent due to maybe higher pay or better work conditions. We noticed some schools had diverse teachers whose kids attended the school, which we took as a good sign. Others had kids going to coed but taught in single sex which gave us a moment of reflection.

I agree OP, this is a real issue. Between my three children they’ve been to three different schools, two private and one state, and across all three I have only ever seen one non-white teacher and she only lasted a year. I also saw one South Asian teacher on a senior school visit and again he stood out because he was such a rarity. In my work manage a large team and if my ratios were such there would be serious questions about my employment practices.

Two years ago we visited about ten London indies for DD (mainly West/North West) and noticed exactly the same. Barely any diversity in senior leadership team or the staff.

One parent in an open day in NLCS asked exactly the same question and the then headteacher acknowledged that it is indeed a problem, they were conscious of it, and had some sort of a plan. Don't know whether anything changed there since (that HT is gone now)

The one small exception was Northwood College for Girls (DD doesn't go there). It's a GDST school and bit outside central London. You can see the SLT and staff list here : www.northwoodcollege.gdst.net/about-us/staff-list/

My DD's school's (West London) senior leadership team has no diversity, there is a small number of Black and Asian teachers though.

I don't actually think it's due to conscious school policy though. We are South Asian origin, and many families from our background have a very strong preference for "practical"/"vocational" degrees. Typically from our ethnicity DDs prefer (or "enncouraged") to study engineering, accounting/business, computer science (and related), health sciences and so on. So on graduation, there are usually straight forward career options linked to their degree and teaching is not one of them.

While if you look at the senior leadership team of most London indies, they usually come from a humanities background - history, English lit, MFL, classics, geography and so on. These subjects are simply not popular among many minority communities in UK. At least not yet.

I think it is just representative of the demographics of the entire teaching workforce - if there aren’t those from a wide ethnic background entering teaching then you won’t see them in the classroom

Thanks, encouraging to hear about some of the schools mentioned. They are a bit far from where we are located though.

Totally agree that it’s a pipeline problem. Many other professions seemed to have tackled this in recent years but the career and salary prospects in those professions are better. I’m mostly thinking about tech joining the ranks of medicine, law and accounting as desirable careers. Having said that there has been a strong push for this change to happen too.

I think some of the so called ‘creative’ professions are more diverse than teaching, where pay and work hours are not always great. I wonder how much of it might also be a vicious cycle of children not seeing themselves as a teacher. If you’re black or south asian it’s easier to imagine being a doctor because you meet doctors from this background too (especially in London).

I’m just curious if schools or education as a field recognise the pipeline problem and initiatives could be set up to help. As many have mentioned it’s difficult to recruit diverse teachers if there aren’t many.

I did have one extended family member who went into teaching and then switched careers because racism was an issue (not only from colleagues but from the student body too).The two ended racism is a lot to take on. He worked at both private and state schools and had issues at both.

I appreciate everyone’s thoughtful input - thanks!

I would love it if my children get inspired by all kinds of teachers including ones that look like them :)